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‘Tendulkar’s presence valuable’

Chennai: Mumbai coach Praveen Amre reiterated the value of having Sachin Tendulkar in the team for the climactic stages of the Ranji Trophy.

He said here on Saturday, “It’s very essential for the young cricketers to interact with him. Tendulkar’s inputs will be extremely valuable for them to progress to the next level. They can learn so much from talking to him, observing him.”

Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer said young paceman Dhaval Kulkarni will benefit from the experience of playing alongside senior paceman Zaheer Khan. “He can learn a lot about the skills of pace bowling from Zaheer.” Amre said Saurashtra was a combative side that had played good cricket this season. He also spoke about prolific run-getter Cheteshwar Pujara. “He is hungry for runs and has this knack of getting big hundreds. Pujara has a very good temperament,” he said.

Speaking about the Super League game in Rajkot where Saurashtra came close to defeating Mumbai outright, Amre said one good spell from young paceman Balakrishna Jadeja had put Mumbai under a lot of pressure. The coach added Mumbai had prepared well for the semifinal.

Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah said his team was confident going into the semifinal. “We will not be overawed by reputations. Playing against Mumbai in a knock-out game is a big challenge. There have been some strong individual performances but we have combined well as a team.” — Special Correspondent